KGUN 9 On Your Side, Tucson News, Weather & SportsArmy's top General tours Ft. Huachuca

Army's top General tours Ft. Huachuca

The President's plan for Afghanistan will dramatically affect Fort Huachuca.

        KGUN 9 ON Your Side's Craig Smith was there as the Army's ranking general toured the intelligence training headquarters.

        It's a real honor for a post like Fort Huachuca when the Army's top general comes to check out operations.

        As Army Chief of Staff General George Casey will be responsible for helping to meet the President's goal of beginning to remove troops from Afghanistan in about a year and a half.

        Craig Smith asked:"What do you say to the critics contend that when you set for withdrawal to begin you just tell the enemy how long they have to bide their time?"

        Gen. Casey:"You need to look more precisely at what the President said.  He said, one, begin.  He said, two, that we would execute the transfer of responsibility, responsibly and he said we would do it based on conditions on the ground.  That's exactly what he said and I think we need to look at it more precisely than some people may be."

        General Casey says as the Army's intelligence center Fort Huachuca will be crucial to success in Afghanistan and that the Army's moving more and more intelligence specialists away from headquarters and closer to the fighting.

        Fort Huachuca trains troops in technical intelligence like remote controlled aircraft, but also in human intelligence: finding people, learning what they know and applying it your mission.  Both are very important in Afghanistan.

        Fort Huachuca's commander, Major General John Custer says today's intelligence soldiers need to understand how enemies think, work, and finance their operations.

        ''What we understand is we have to build a language enhanced and culturally enhanced soldier. "

         General Casey believes Fort Huachuca training has absorbed lessons learned in Iraq and is adjusting the training to the culture and environment of Afghanistan.

        General Casey had good news for army families. 

        With troop strength up and the troop draw down in Iraq, the army should have enough soldiers to stick to 12 month deployments to Afghanistan and avoid the 15 month deployments used for part of our time in Iraq.